This Chinese Tomato Minced Pork Stir-Fry is a simple dish that always brings me back to childhood. My mom used to make it and pack it in my lunchbox for school. Tangy tomatoes, savoury pork, and the sauce mixed with rice make it so comforting and hard to stop eating.
Table of Contents
- Watch How to Make It
- A Comforting Tomato Pork Dish from My Childhood
- Ingredients You Need
- How to Make Chinese Tomato Minced Pork Stir-fry
- How to Get a Really Tomato-y Sauce
Watch How to Make It
A Comforting Tomato Pork Dish from My Childhood
My mom used to make this for me and pack it in a plastic pink Hello Kitty lunchbox when I was just five years old, in my first year of primary school.
The simple flavours of tangy, sweet tomato and savoury pork lazy meatballs mixed with the sauce over rice make me scoop and eat it so fast I almost don’t even need to chew.
Honestly, I’m not even sure if other families make it because I don’t see many recipes for it. But I know my family does. It started with my grandma, then my mom and dad learned from her, and now I’m keeping this recipe alive. It’s super simple, easy and comforting!
Ingredients You Need
Here are a few key ingredients to note. You’ll find the full ingredient list and quantities in the recipe card below.
Tomatoes
You can really use as many tomatoes as you like in this recipe. The more the merrier! Whenever my mom and dad cook this dish, they use a whole pack of tomatoes, about 400 grams, which is roughly 6 medium tomatoes.
Minced pork
My family and I usually use minced pork for this recipe, and I like to use 15% fat because the extra fat makes it more flavourful. Sometimes we swap it out for thinly sliced pork shoulder using the same marinade.
It’s a very flexible dish though, so you can use whatever meat you like! Minced chicken or beef works too, although I personally think tomatoes and pork pair especially well together.
Pork marinade
When I was in university and on a long-distance call with my parents, I asked them how to make this dish and what goes into the marinade. Their typical answer was. “You know, the usual!”
In our house, that usually means the classic Chinese marinade ingredients: light soy sauce, a bit of dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing cooking wine, cornstarch, sugar, and sesame oil.
Whenever I marinate meat with these ingredients, I always add the sauces, cornstarch and sugar first and mix everything well. Then I add the sesame oil last to help lock in the marinade.
How to Make Chinese Tomato Minced Pork Stir-fry
Marinate the pork. While it marinates, cut the tomatoes into wedges and prepare the garlic and ginger.
Heat a wok over high heat and add a little cooking oil. Add the sliced garlic and ginger and sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
Add the tomato wedges and stir-fry for a minute. Season with salt and sugar, then add the ketchup. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften.
Add about 250 ml water, or just enough to cover the tomatoes. Cover with the lid, reduce the heat slightly to medium-high, and cook for 10 minutes. After 5 minutes, lift the lid and crush some of the tomatoes to release their juices. Crush more if you want a saucier, more tomato-forward sauce, or less if you prefer chunkier tomatoes.
Once the sauce begins to concentrate, scoop about 1/2 tablespoon of the marinated minced pork at a time and drop it into the sauce to form loose lazy meatballs. Make sure the pork is submerged in the sauce.
Cover the wok again and cook on medium-high heat for another 5 minutes, until the pork is fully cooked.
Garnish with chopped green onions and serve with rice.
How to Get a Really Tomato-y Sauce
1) Don’t add too much water
I add about 250ml of water, which is just enough to cover the tomato wedges after briefly stir-frying them. Then cover the wok with a lid and cook on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes so the tomatoes soften and release their juices.
2) Crush the tomatoes
Halfway through simmering, I like to gently crush the tomatoes with a spatula to release more juice and make the sauce extra tomato-y. Some people prefer chunkier tomatoes, but I like mine almost like a sauce.
3) Add a tiny bit of ketchup
Sometimes we add a bit of ketchup in Chinese cooking. You’ll see it in dishes like tomato egg stir-fry or ketchup shrimp. I like adding about 1 tablespoon to enhance the tomato flavour and give the sauce a slight sweetness.
More 30-minute Recipes You’ll Love
Chinese Tomato Minced Pork Stir-fry
2
servings10
minutes20
minutesA comforting Chinese tomato minced pork stir-fry with tangy tomatoes and tender pork. Perfect served with rice.
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Ingredients
6 medium tomatoes (about 400g)
250 g minced pork
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 slices ginger, julienned
1 tbsp ketchup
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
250 ml water (or enough to just cover the tomatoes)
1 green onion, chopped (for garnish)
- Pork marinade:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp sesame oil
Directions
- Marinate the pork. While it marinates, cut the tomatoes into wedges and prepare the garlic and ginger.
- Heat a wok over high heat and add a little cooking oil. Add the sliced garlic and ginger and sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
- Add the tomato wedges and stir-fry for a minute. Season with salt and sugar, then add the ketchup. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften.
- Add about 250 ml water, or just enough to cover the tomatoes. Cover with the lid, reduce the heat slightly to medium-high, and cook for 10 minutes. After 5 minutes, lift the lid and crush some of the tomatoes to release their juices. Crush more if you want a saucier, more tomato-forward sauce, or less if you prefer chunkier tomatoes.
- Once the sauce begins to concentrate, scoop about 1/2 tablespoon of the marinated minced pork at a time and drop it into the sauce to form loose lazy meatballs. Make sure the pork is submerged in the sauce.
- Cover the wok again and cook on medium-high heat for another 5 minutes, until the pork is fully cooked.
- Garnish with chopped green onions and serve with rice.
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